One of the big dangers facing some protected and endangered species in Africa is poachers. To help detect and stop poachers before they kill animals, a company called Resolve has unveiled a new Trailguard AI camera.

”By pairing AI technology with human decision-makers, we
can solve some of our greatest challenges, including illegal poaching of
endangered animals. With TrailGuard AI, Intel’s Movidius technology
enables the camera to capture suspected poacher images and alerts park
rangers, who will ultimately decide the most appropriate response.”
–Anna Bethke, leader of AI for Social Good at Intel Corporation

How It Works: TrailGuard AI uses Intel® Movidius® Vision Processing Units (VPUs) for image processing, running deep neural network algorithms for object detection and image classification inside the camera. If humans are detected among any of the motion-activated images captured by the camera, it triggers electronic alerts to park personnel so they can mobilize rangers before poachers can do harm.

Intel’s Anna Bethke and RESOLVE’s Eric Dinerstein hide a TrailGuard AI anti-poaching camera system in a tree during a recent demonstration in the mountains south of Monterey, Calif. The Intel Movidius Myriad 2 chip in the camera uses artificial intelligence to identify potential poachers. (Credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)

Why It’s Important: According to RESOLVE, an
elephant is killed every 15 minutes by a poacher, at a rate of
approximately 35,000 elephants per year. In a decade, experts predict
there won’t be any more elephants. Rhinos, gorillas, tigers and other
large mammals are also in danger from poachers, as are giraffes,
antelopes and wildebeest that are often caught in poachers’ snares.

“Reckless human activity is causing species loss and extinction on an unprecedented scale, with recent reports showing that as many as 60 percent of all wildlife has been wiped out since 1970. If illegal poaching of wildlife continues at the current rate, elephants are just one of the large mammal species that will be completely erased in our lifetime,” said Justin Winters, executive director, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which provided critical funding for prototypes and is working to support broad-based deployment of these systems. “A commitment to protecting wildlife has been at the heart of LDF’s work from the beginning and we are excited to collaborate with Intel and RESOLVE on this breakthrough AI technology, which is set to be a game-changer for park rangers in the monitoring and management of endangered species around the world.”

Censored photos using a TrailGuard device show poachers in Africa carrying bush meat (left) and moving through a natural area. (Credit: RESOLVE)

How It’s Different:
TrailGuard AI uses deep neural network algorithms that allow the device
to recognize humans and vehicles with a high degree of accuracy.
TrailGuard AI builds upon the success of RESOLVE’s first-generation
TrailGuard camera deployed in protected reserves that alerts rangers any
time it detects motion. With the first-generation camera, rangers
receive many photos that they had to manually review to determine if
there is a poaching threat or a false-positive triggered by other
motion. By adding an additional layer of AI into the system, TrailGuard
AI intelligently knows when a potential poacher is present, allowing
park rangers to rapidly intercept and apprehend.

TrailGuard AI is powered by the tiny yet powerful Intel® Movidius™ Myriad™ 2 VPU, which delivers visual intelligence to the camera itself, resulting in several important benefits:

Limited false-positives: Instead of alerting the
rangers anytime there is motion in front of the camera, including from
shifting cloud cover, birds and animals, TrailGuard AI only sends images
to the rangers when a person or vehicle is detected. Limited
false-positives means rangers have more time to focus on their work,
instead of spending their time looking through hundreds of false alerts
each day.

Long battery life: The Intel Movidius VPU powers
all of TrailGuard AI’s processing needs – from wake-on-motion to image
processing to AI inference to communication protocols — all while
running at very low power. It is designed to perform in the wild for up
to 1.5 years without depleting the battery. This is a great improvement
over the original TrailGuard that has a separate computing unit
requiring rangers to undertake the time-consuming and often dangerous
task of field maintenance every four to six weeks. TrailGuard AI’s long
battery life also means less foot-traffic around the hidden cameras,
which could alert poachers to their locations.

Small in size: Due to the miniscule size of the
Intel Movidius VPU, TrailGuard AI is about the size of a pencil and
easier to hide and camouflage from poachers and wild animals.

RESOLVE’s Eric Dinerstein holds the internal workings of the TrailGuard AI anti-poaching camera system during a recent demonstration in the mountains south of Monterey, Calif. The Intel Movidius Myriad 2 chip in the camera uses artificial intelligence to identify potential poachers. (Credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)

“The Intel Movidius VPU allowed us to revolutionize TrailGuard AI by
adding artificial intelligence to a proven end-to-end solution to stop
illegal poaching around the world,” said Eric Dinerstein, director of
biodiversity and wildlife at RESOLVE. “In addition to providing the AI
technology, Intel engineers worked closely with us to build, test and
optimize this incredible anti-poaching solution that will make a real
difference in saving animals.”

Where TrailGuard AI is Deployed: In partnership with
the National Geographic Society, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and
others, TrailGuard AI will be deployed in 100 reserves in Africa
throughout 2019, starting with Serengeti and Garamba, with plans to
expand to Southeast Asia and South America.

“Edge computing technology has the power to revolutionize the way we
understand and protect our natural heritage,” said Dr. Fabien Laurier,
vice president of National Geographic Labs. “National Geographic is
excited to work with Intel on TrailGuard AI and deploy these
anti-poaching systems throughout Africa. This collaboration is critical
to accelerating conservation and working toward our mission of achieving
a planet in balance.”